Tip: Cardboard will do, but if you want to create a special keepsake, consider buying an inexpensive balsa-wood box.

Directions

Step 1

Help your child select the paper she would like to use to cover the box. Cut out pieces large enough to cover the box and the lid. Wrap the lid and the outside of the box in paper, but don't secure it in place. (Just check that you have enough paper and that your child likes how it looks.) Remove the paper and use the glue stick to cover the surface of the box and lid with glue. Rewrap the box and the lid in the paper and secure any loose edges with sticky tape.

Step 2

With a pencil, help your child trace the bottom of the box and the lid on construction paper or felt. Cut out the paper or felt and use these pieces to line the bottom of the box and the inside of the lid. Secure them with the glue stick. Line the inside of the box the same way.

Step 3

Help your child make a nameplate for her box by writing her name on a piece of colored paper with crayons or colored markers, cutting it out, and gluing it to the top of the box. Squeeze glue around the cut edge of the nameplate and have your child sprinkle glitter on top. After the glue dries, shake off the excess glitter onto a piece of newspaper and return it to the glitter container.

Step 4

To make sure the box will close when you're done, put the lid on before your child starts decorating it. Kids can add stickers and glue on pom-poms, felt shapes, pipe cleaners, glitter, and Blue's Clues coloring pages like <u><a href="color-blue.jhtml">Color Blue</a></u>, <u><a href="blues-small-paw-prints.jhtml"> Blue's Paw Prints</a></u>, <u><a href="blues-rhyming-storybook.jhtml"> Blue's Rhyming Storybook</a></u>, and <u><a href="blues-room-friendship-journal.jhtml">Blue's "Favorite Things" Journal</a></u>. Talk with your child about what favorite things she'd like to keep in the box and encourage her to draw pictures of her favorite things to cut out and glue to the box.

Step 5

After the box has dried completely, have your child place her favorite things inside. For example, pictures of friends and special relatives, favorite small stuffed animals, toys and games, art supplies--even a piece of her old security blanket.

Tip: To help kids choose their favorite things, ask questions, such as, "What is your favorite object from nature?"